Nightingale – open-source karaoke app that works with any song on your computer
Source: Hacker News
Overview
Turn any song into karaoke. A self‑contained party game that separates vocals, transcribes lyrics, and plays it all back with word‑level sync and pitch scoring.
Downloads
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Linux
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macOS – Getting started
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Windows
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Documentation – /docs/
Features
🎤 Stem separation
Vocals are isolated from instrumentals using the UVR Karaoke model or Demucs. Guide vocal volume is adjustable.
📝 Word‑level lyrics
WhisperX transcribes and aligns every word to the audio. Existing lyrics from LRCLIB are used when available.
🎯 Pitch scoring
Sing into your mic and get scored in real‑time. Star ratings and per‑song scoreboards track your progress.
👤 Player profiles
Multiple profiles with separate score histories. Switch between singers without losing anyone’s records.
🎬 Video file support
Drop .mp4 or .mkv files into your library. Vocals are separated and the original video plays as the background.
🌌 Dynamic backgrounds
GPU shader effects (plasma, aurora, nebula…), Pixabay video loops, or the source video for video files.
🎮 Gamepad
Navigate menus, pick songs, and control playback entirely with a controller (D‑pad, sticks, face buttons).
📦 Single binary
ffmpeg, Python, PyTorch, and the ML models are all bootstrapped on first launch. Nothing to install.
How it works
Separate
UVR Karaoke or Demucs splits the track into vocals and instrumental. Audio is extracted from video files automatically.
Transcribe
Synced lyrics are looked up on LRCLIB first. If nothing’s found, WhisperX transcribes the vocals with word‑level alignment.
Play
The instrumental plays back with highlighted lyrics, pitch scoring, dynamic backgrounds, and gamepad support.
Platforms
Runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. GPU acceleration via CUDA or Metal when available, with CPU fallback everywhere else.
- Linux: x86_64, aarch64
- macOS: ARM, Intel
- Windows: x86_64